2012 Fiat 500 Sport

Second Place: Playmobiles.

Plagued by a near-total lack of reliability, premature rusting, and the joke acronym “Fix it again, Tony,” Fiat retreated from the U.S. market in 1983. But mention that caveat to one of Fiat’s new emptors, and you will summon the same confused look Grandma makes when you try explaining to her why Snooki has a career. Those young buyers have no memory, and likely little knowledge, of Fiat. For the few who do, 500s come with a four-year or 50,000-mile warranty and a three-year/36,000-mile free-maintenance program—same as the Cooper.

Calling the Fiat cute might be cliché, but the 500 is just so darn little (7.0 inches shorter and 2.2 inches narrower than the Mini). This Sport model’s larger grille opening and y-spoke wheels don’t man things up enough to elicit descriptors like “aggressive” or “poised for attack.” Cute still applies.

From behind the wheel, the Fiat feels taller than the Mini, more so than its 4.4-inch-higher roofline suggests. The over-six-foot set will want to forgo the sunroof, as it reduces headroom by 1.3 inches. Mid-five-footers can feel their hair connecting with the burlap-crossbred-with-mouse-fur headliner. The only touch of interior panache is a body-color plastic dash panel. Without that, the cabin would be a black sea with the occasional piece of chrome debris adrift in it.

With its high-mounted seats, the 500 provides excellent forward sightlines over its tiny hood. But its thick C-pillars compromise rearward visibility. We were twice caught off guard by a lane neighbor in the car’s blind spot, even with the driver’s-side ­mirror’s wide-view convex helper. Unlike the Mini, the Fiat has no telescoping wheel, and the driver ends up positioned closer to the pedals than we prefer.

American-market Fiats are powered by a 1.4-liter inline-four featuring the brand’s version of a throttleless intake called Multi­air [see C/D, November 2009 “Tech Dept.” for a full explanation]. With 101 horsepower on tap, the 500 can blow the doors off a Smart Fortwo, but that’s about it. Getting to 60 requires two shifts and 9.6 seconds. The quarter-mile run? Let’s just say it will happen eventually. An upcoming Abarth edition will get a turbocharged version of this engine with at least 130 horsepower.

Keeping up in city traffic—the 500’s natural habitat—is no problem. Sure, you’ll frequently pin the accelerator pedal to the floor and you’ll get lots of practice shifting, but the engine hums along dutifully and isn’t nearly as coarse as the Mini’s four above 4000 rpm. The five-speed’s shifter has a good amount of slop in it; we found third a couple of times when we were looking for first. Also, we can’t recall a car that required so many drops to second gear on those winding southern-Ohio roads. In most cars, third gear has enough gusto to keep things entertaining.

Highway cruising demands constant rowing, too. There will be no rest for your left leg, even on the expressway. As long as nothing gets in its way, the 500 will maintain freeway speeds. But throw in a mild uphill grade or drop below 70 mph in fifth gear for any reason, and you’re going to need to downshift to get back up to pace.

Ohio’s roads revealed how different the Mini and the Fiat are. The Cooper feels substantial and stiff where the Fiat shows some dynamic gaps. The 500’s body roll at turn-in gives the impression it is nearing, or at, its cornering limit. But there is more to be had. We were surprised to find its skidpad grip at 0.85 g. The high-mounted seats are partly to blame, as they exaggerate the sense of roll.

Neither car possesses great steering feel or feedback. Both employ efficiency-aiding, electric-assist power steering, and—as is appropriate for city cars—both helms are refreshingly light at parking-lot speeds. But both load up unnaturally, most notably above 35 mph. Each also has a sport button, which only adds heft to the tiller and a false sense of tire distress.

The Fiat and the Mini have excellent EPA numbers. The Italian’s 30-mpg city and 38-mpg highway ratings are each one better than the Mini’s 29 and 37 mpg. Our 600-mile romp returned the opposite, though, with the Mini edging the Fiat’s 29 by 1 mpg. It is worth noting that the larger gas tank Fiat fitted to U.S-market 500s holds only 10.6 ­gallons. At our consumption rate, the range is little more than 300 miles. City car indeed.

Like the Volkswagen New Beetle before it, the 500 relies heavily on attention-grabbing style for its appeal. As we went to print, there were only 15 Fiat dealerships open for business, with another 115 planned by the end of the year. Sorry, North Platte, Nebraska: Fiat “Studios” will only sprout up in areas with an existing high concentration of small cars. In other words, big cities where style matters more than performance. And there is nothing cooler than Italian style right? Well, almost nothing.

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